119
KOYLOON
- CANTON RAILWAY
The Chinese section of the railway is
mortgaged to the British-Chinese Corporation as
security for the loan for the construction of the
railway. This loan has not yet been refunded and
while any part of the loan is outstanding the railway,
while remaining the property of the Chinese Government,
is still under mortgage to the Corporation whose rights
are defined by the Canton-Kowloon Railway Loan
Agreement made at Peking in 1907.
There is a working Agreement recently
revised, to which the parties are the Ministry of
Railways of the National Government of the Republic of
China and the Government of Hong Kong. This
Agreement provides for through traffic between the
British and Chinese sections of the Canton-Kowloon
railway and the Canton-Hankow railway.
On the threat of the Japanese landing a force
to cut the railway in Chinese territory, we made an
official protest to the Cantonese Government, on a
report that the Chinese were planning to destroy the
property of the railway in case of the emergency of a
Japanese landing. ve based this protest on the
Chinese Government's obligations not to destroy or to
interfere with the operation of the railway as
security against the construction loan.
It should be mentioned that on the occasion
of attacks by Japanese aircraft on the railway in the
past month, we have reminded the Japanese of our
interest in the line but have naturally received from
them the counter reminder that as long as we permit
the
Page 120Page 121